Heading out tomorrow at the crack of godawful, to visit my parents, do a gallery opening, all that good stuff. I am already tired, so this may be the Death March of the Wombat. We’ll see.

I shall leave you with a katydid.

This is called a “Broad-Tipped Conehead Katydid.”

Seriously, check out that face.

You can’t tell me he isn’t plotting something.

Also, I got a barred owl in the backyard last night, and that is just cool beyond all reason. And a life bird. At the moment, I am having enormous fun just finding new species in my yard, but perhaps the wilds of Upper Michigan will have some late migrants for me. Or some interesting ducks.

And then at least I get to be home for a little while, until it’s time to go sign copies of Digger. And then I’m not traveling again for anything less than Disneyworld or an act of God until May.

Happened to be looking in exactly the right spot while building my swale and went “Wait a minute, that’s not a normal leaf…”

This is Euclea delphinii. He will turn into a brown moth with big green spots on his wings.

While trying to learn more about him, I ran smack into the wall of our vast ignorance. He probably eats oak. Probably. Maybe some other stuff. Nobody’s sure. And I literally cannot tell you if they are as common as dirt or desperately endangered, because their conservation status has never been evaluated. (My guess is that they are reasonably common because—well, obviously, I’m seeing one! And there are plenty of sightings on the various websites about bugs.)

We do know that they sting, and if you put your hand on one, you will need to use scotch tape to extract the spines from your skin. And if you’re very unlucky, you will have an allergic reaction and need to head to the hospital or at least load up on Benadryl.

Still, this kinda thing honestly freaks me out a little. That there are things so common that they are in my garden—and yet, we know almost nothing about them. Do they need to be protected? Can they live in cities? How far do they travel? What all do they eat?